Monday, March 28, 2011

Tim Wise...extended off of Billy's, Cole's and Amanda C's blogs

I was reading through our class blogs and already had in mind that I was going to do an extended comments entry this week. My dilemma, though, was who to extend off of. As I was reading I ended up with three I’d like to extend from so I figured I’d try it. I chose to use the blogs posted by Billy, Cole and Amanda C.

Billy wrote: “First starting off with white privilege, i always new something was wrong, when I would get the stink eye when I wear a hood. Over the years I find myself taking my hood off when i see pretty girls walk by me so they don't get intimidated. Any who, that is not the point”
I cannot personally testify that this is true because I have never had to experience this on a personal level but on some level, I know its true. Regardless of how “equal” people claim this nation is, I believe there is still inequality. Whether is blatant racism, stereotypes or just the way somebody words something they say - racism still exists in this country. Just the fact that Billy pulls his hood down because he doesn’t want to intimidate people or get the “stink eye” is an example of that. I disagree when he says this isn’t the point because it is. It is a perfect example of hoops that people still have to jump through due to racial stereotypes.I hope that someday this issue of racism will be completely non existent in our so called nation of equal opportunity.

Cole wrote: “This reminds me of the culture of power because Barack Obama had to be the culture of power in order to become president. Wise explains that a mediocre black man could not become president and he goes on to say that their that plenty of intelligent colored people, but they may have a different style than Barack. Barack Obama's style is very "culture of powerish".
I didn’t make the connection on my own but after reading through the blogs and reading this on Cole’s blog I couldn’t agree more. The videos and articles completely reminded me of the culture of power. An average black citizen would not have been able to become president. I’m not saying that they wouldn’t deserve to become president, but unfortunately I do not think they would have that chance. This is really unfortunate but it goes back to the culture of power. Barack Obama, though not white, lived in the culture of power. He knew and was aware of how things worked and how things played out in the culture of power. This, I believe, played a big role in Obama becoming president.

Amanda C wrote: “In cases that I’ve witnessed, the students that grow up in a better neighborhood, with parents that they see regularly get better grades and actually want to be in school. The students that live in the poorer or less fortunate neighborhoods with their parents working multiple jobs just to keep enough food in the house got poor grades and hated going to school.”
I do not necessarily agree with these points. I mean to certain extent this statement is probably true, kids in better neighborhoods enjoying school and kids in rougher neighborhoods dreading going to school. I believe however that this only applies to a small percentage. I feel that it has more to do with parents of guardians being there. I believe that students, for the most part, have an easier time in school when the parents are around because the parents are there for support, guidance and help. When the parents are busy working multiple jobs and in a lot of cases are the only parent, they are not there as often to help their child. I feel that then this child feels like he/she cannot succeed in school and then in turn doesn’t want to try (and vise-versa)…which is extremely unfortunate.

I’d like to discuss how certain aspects of social life and where someone lives affects students and how they succeed in school.